Still here at the NVCA Annual Meeting, and I'm about to live-blog a cleantech panel: NVCA Annual Meeting: Cleantech Panel
1 min read · 29 April 2009
Here at the NVCA Annual Meeting in Boston. What follows is a live-blog of five legends of healthcare VC investing: Brook Byers (Kleiner Perkins), Jim Blair (Domain Associates), Jean Deleage (Alta Partners), Tony Evnin (Venrock) and Grent Heidrich (Mayfield). Get it after the jump.
1 min read · 29 April 2009
The National Venture Capital Association this morning released a four-point plan to revive the slumped market for VC-backed IPOs. Two of the pillars are aimed at public authorities (tax incentives & SOX/RegD reform), while the other two are aimed at the private sector (ecosystem enhancements like helping form more botique I-banks & creating new liquidity paths via secondary direct markets like InsideVenture, SecondMarket, etc.). What's important to realize about NVCA's presentation (posted after the jump) is that it argues that VC-backed problems are systemic, rather than recessionary. For example, the Spitzer-prompted separation of research and investment banking has caused massive drainage of the analyst pond, thus making it far more difficult for VC-backed companies to obtain coverage. And as much as I hate relaxing regs that were designed to protect investors, I'll concede that small-cap companies should not be under the exact same rules a large-cap companies. Or at least they should have a more streamlined process (particularly vis-a-vis SOX compliance). But let me also make a few additional points:
3 min read · 29 April 2009
5 min read · 28 April 2009
I’ll be on CNBC's Squawk Box program tomorrow morning at 6:40am ET (ugh!), to discuss the dreary capital markets situation for VC-backed companies. Specifically, Dixon Doll and I will debate whether the problem is systemic or recessionary. I think it's a little bit of both, but will aim for greater clarity once the red light goes on. In related egocentric news, I'll be moderating two upcoming panel discussions. First up is a VC panel this Friday at the Nantucket Conference (which I believe is sold out). Second is next Thursday, at an ACG Boston event called: Emerging Professionals - Tips for Managing Your Career in a Recession (which I think still has tix available). Finally, I'll be hanging around the NVCA Annual Meeting later this week in Boston, so I hope to run into a bunch of you there...
1 min read · 28 April 2009
Our latest peHUB Internship Rodeo has begun, for first-year MBA candidates in search of summer internships in the private equity market (defined very broadly). More than 40 listings are up so far, including shops that focus on venture capital, growth equity, leveraged buyouts, funds-of-funds, investment banking, M&A and more. We've even got opportunities in Brazil, China, India and the UK. Listings can be found in the MBA Forum section of peHUB.com, under the Summer Internship folder of the Employment section. To access the MBA Forum, you must have an Access Code specific to your business school. If you do not have such a code, please contact the head of your PE/VC Club. If that fails, you also
1 min read · 27 April 2009
peHUB has learned that Jay Koh is leaving R3 Capital Partners, where he has spent the past two years as head of private equity for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In an email sent out to friends and associates, Koh said that he "will be exploring new opportunities related to private equity and illiquid investing." R3 is a $1.5 billion firm that manages a global credit-focused, fundamentally-driven, multi-strategy hedge fund. It was formed last year as a spinout from Lehman Brothers' Global Principal Strategies Division, and bought back Lehman's 45% general partner interest after Lehman collapsed. Earlier this month, R3 agreed to be acquired by Blackrock.
1 min read · 27 April 2009
Venture capital performance fell across all time horizons in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to data released this morning by the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). On the up-side, performance remained positive for all horizons three-years and out, with venture capital continuing to outperform public market indices -- including the Nasdaq and S&P 500 -- for all measured time periods. What's essential to realize, however, is that the most important time horizon is not five years, ten years or 20 years. Instead, it's nine years -- because that correlates to the end of the dotcom boom. We all know that VCs did gangbuster business between 1996 and 1999, but it's in 2000 when things began to go south. So we called up the Thomson Reuters data folks, and found out that the nine-year pooled IRR horizon is just 1.3 percent. For context, the 10-year return stands at 15.5 percent. Come January 1, long-term VC performance data will look very different…
1 min read · 27 April 2009
1 min read · 27 April 2009
The Quadrangle Group will be allowed to invest the final $500 million of its $2 billion second fund, after a "significant majority" of limited partners voted to continue the commitment period, peHUB has learned from LP sources. A firm spokesman declined comment. For the uninitiated, Quadrangle's investors had until this past Friday to vote in favor of ending the fund's investment period, based on the February departure of "key man" Steve Rattner (who left to become Obama's auto czar). Such a move would have precluded Quadrangle from adding new portfolio companies, although it would have been allowed to re-invest in existing ones (including add-on transactions). LPs rarely invoke such privileges, due to concerns that ending an investment period could cause an exodus of firm personnel -- thus leaving existing investments unattended. But Quadrangle was a special case. Not only was Rattner the firm's public face, but he also was the primary contact with many of its larger limited partners. Moreover, Rattner has been implicated as at least a tangential part of the pay-to-play scandal that has engulfed the New York State Common Retirement Fund -- although no formal charges have been brought against him.
2 min read · 26 April 2009
